Monday, November 16, 2015

I have several commission pieces to knit. I have a Knitpicks pattern to test knit. I have Christmas with the annual creation of hand knit presents breathing down my neck.

And did I work on any of them this weekend?

Of course not.

Instead I spent two days knitting another Star shower.

I couldn't help myself. I was just so in love with my blue/green version.

Let us take a moment to relive its majesty.

It's so pretty how could I not want another one.

And I got to thinking. I'm currently nurturing another obsession.

Plaid.

I am a child of the 90's. How could I not rejoice over the return of plaid?

And I didn't realize until I took this picture, but apprently my obsession skews towards red plaid. This isn't necessarily a bad thing...

Anyways, you know what would be PERFECT to wear with all my red plaid?

A grey Star shower cowl of course.

It still needs blocked and then I can add it to my large pile of items that need the ends woven in. But I did it.

I knit it.

I created it.

And now that I've got that out of my system I can return to my commissions and test knitting and Christmas creating. Right?

Only I'm super in love with my Stepmommy's sweater and I really need to make one for myself in red. Need one! Like last week need one! I could wear it over my red plaid with my grey cowl. I'd look fantastic! I've got time to sneak this project in right?

Saturday, November 14, 2015

One is hot. And I don't mean pleasant warm your cold winter bones summer heat. I mean freaking depths of hell hot. You know that blast of heat when you open the oven. That dry hot air that just hits you in the face and makes your eyes water? That is what the air feels like for months at a time. Too hot to go outside. Too hot to touch metal anything on the playground. Driving with oven mitts because the steering wheel is too hot to touch hot.

When we're in the endless days of summer, when day after day after day is over 100 degrees. When it "cools down" to 91 over night. When you're sweating it out in the endless heat you don't think its ever going to end. You forget that life isn't always this hot.

Which might feel worth it if it snowed. But in a cruel twist of fate it is never cold enough to snow cold.

And I am aware that what I consider cold like the freaking depths of cold dark space cold is really a mildly chilly day in other parts of the country, but I have lived here for almost a decade. My blood is thin. Too thin to be of any use. My body no longer knows how to function in a normal four season environment. It does as little as possible to stay cool during the nine month summer, and then for the three cold months it doesn't even know what to do. I've forgotten how to function like a normal human being.

Usually there is a week or two of glorious beautiful weather between the "it's too hot to open the windows" and the "it's too cold to open the windows." But not this year. This year it was hot, and then it wasn't.

Yarn: I'm not postitive, but I think this was 1 skein of Socks That Rock heavyweight. I can't be sure. One of the helpful things The Queen Bean did for me was to remove all the tags off the yarn in my yarn cabinet one day when I was lying on the couch with a migraine. I'm so lucky to have such a helpful little girl who kept herself quietly occupied while I prayed for death.

Needles: The pattern called for a size 6, but I found the fabric to be too dense for my taste so I went up to a size 8.

Modifications: I'm pretty sure the only change I made was the needle size thing. I don't think I adjusted the pattern to make up for the change in gauge. But I can't be sure. I really need to start keeping better notes. I may have omitted some rows at the end because I ran out of yarn, but I don't remember exactly what I changed. I am the WORST blogger ever.

Review:

I was pretty "meh" about this cowl after I knit it.

The shape is off.

It isn't an exact circle or rectangle. It is a weird hexagon shapey thing.

I wasn't feeling it.

I wasn't feeling the weird hexagon shapey thing.

So I added the cowl to my stack of scarves in my closet and moved on with life. It was too hot to wear a scarf anyways.

But this morning I was cold. I didn't want to take off my comfy warm bathrobe to put on real clothes. But my daughter's boyfriend is coming over this afternoon to watch a movie, so real clothes must be worn.

THIS IS THE MOST PEFECTEST COWL TO EVER EXIST IN THE HISTORY OF PERFECT COWLS!

That weird hexagon shapey thingie means there is lots of drapey fabric in the front but not too much in the back. There is enough cowl on the back of your neck to keep you warm, but not so much that you feel like you are being strangled.

It is glorious.

Plus looks at all that knitted textured goodness.

I'm a sucker for some photogenic knitted texture.

I also really enjoy how the variegated yarn played nicely with this pattern. You never know how variegated yarn is going to behave. It can flash and pool in the most terrifying of ways. But not on my cowl. It is all blendy blue and green beauty.

My cowl was the perfect way to ease into the cold season.

In an added bonus, the cold also means I can start dressing The Queen Bean in all those tiny tiny baby sweaters I was so addicted to knitting over the summer. Pictures coming soon. If I can get her to hold still long enough to take them.